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Written by Demi Marshall
Illinois-based nu-grunge band heaving. recently released their first two singles "distorted" and "zipper." The band has been stirring up crowds at live shows in the area and working on an EP. In this interview, heaving. discusses their current sound, experience in the Illinois music scene, and their dream tour lineup.
Tell us about your latest release “zipper.” What topics or ideas does it explore?
This was one of the first songs we wrote together as a band. After finishing a majority of the instrumental, Morgan commented on one of the drum fills sounding like a zipper so we decided to make that the working title. We started working on lyrics and ended up keeping the zipper theme by centering the song around the carnival ride. This track is about loneliness and especially feeling alone even when surrounded by people. Imagine being at a packed carnival by yourself and the anxiety that could bring, and then forcing yourself to try and ride this crazy machine as a challenge to yourself.
How would you describe your current sound? Which of your songs would you recommend to first time listeners?
We’ve been trying to nail down what genre we most fit into. Lately we’ve been calling it nu-grunge? Sort of nu-metal and grunge but with elements of emo, shoegaze, hard rock, and alt-metal. We’ve only put two singles out so far so we recommend first time listeners giving them both a shot and then letting us know what genre they think we are.
What does your process look like when writing/creating music?
It’s been changing a bit lately but usually will start with one or two of us getting about three sections of a song written and recording a demo and sharing it with the rest of the guys. Usually Morgan, our singer/guitarist, will send a pretty complete song idea in the groupchat that we all dissect and rearrange. We’ll then meet up for practice and show each other our ideas and see what we can agree on. It pretty much always starts with the instrumental and then adding vocals after.
Tell us about your experience with the Illinois music scene. How would you describe it? What are the best parts about it?
It’s been great so far. Two of us have been playing shows in various bands in the Peoria area for a while and the other two are just getting started in the scene. We’ve been super fortunate to be able to hit the ground running with this project and play some awesome local shows with our friends in other bands. It's a tight scene and a lot of us work together and hang often so it’s a really special thing to be able to play these songs in front of our friends at local shows. Peoria house shows have been some of the best moments over the past few months. Our first show was at Mt. Moon in Peoria and we were so stoked to have over 200 people come through this living room to see our first set.
What was the most memorable show you’ve played, and what was great about it?
Our first show in the Mt. Moon living room is pretty unforgettable. More recently, we played at the local axe throwing bar to around 250 people and it had to be one of the craziest crowds we’ve seen. We started this project out of a desire to play some heavier music and it feels like the scene has been waiting for something like this to come and shake things up a bit.
Do you have any pre-show rituals? How do you relax or celebrate after a live show?
Honestly we all just get nervous before shows and spend a bit warming up. A lot of the songs we’ve been playing live are still super fresh and we hold each other to pretty high standards so we feel a bit of pressure every time we get on stage. It’s all good butterflies though and makes the shows super fun. We don’t really party too hard or anything after a set. We like to hang at the merch booth and talk to anybody that wants to chat after our set. It’s always fun getting thoughts from the crowd and seeing how the new songs are going over.
If you could get any artists to tour with you, dead or alive, who would be on the bill?
Loathe and Static Dress are two bands that we’re obsessed with and would love to get to open for. We kind of see ourselves as drifting into that realm of heavy music recently and it would be so crazy to share the stage with those guys.
What can we expect from you in the future?
We recently finished recording our first EP. The mixing process will start in a few weeks so we’re hoping we can drop a single before too long. We actually recorded the whole thing ourselves in one bedroom. We’re going to be finishing up this next batch of songs over the next few weeks and then picking which ones will be on the follow up record. Super excited to share all of these new tracks with you guys. We have some shows and new merch on the socials so follow us on instagram @heaving.band if you want to stay in touch or just stop and say hello.
Keep up with heaving. :
Stream zipper: